It appears that tenants will be secure at least through January in the four Island towns where rental housing contracts were put in jeopardy two weeks ago, when the Island Affordable Housing Fund could not pay the monthly subsidies.

Applications for affordable rental housing in Oak Bluffs are now available through the Dukes County Regional Housing Authority, on behalf of TRI (The Resource Inc), a private, nonprofit corporation working in conjunction with the town of Oak Bluffs and the state Department of Housing and Community Development.

The new rental housing is in the Noyes building (formerly the Oak Bluffs library) and includes:

One studio apartment; one one-bedroom apartment; and one two-bedroom, fully accessible apartment. Rents range from $850 to $1,030 per month.

In a significant change of direction, the director of the Island Affordable Housing Fund, Ewell Hopkins, is looking to large-scale affordable rental projects rather than home ownership developments as a solution to the Vineyard’s chronic housing problem.

And as money for affordable development from the traditional source, private donations, has dried up, he is turning instead to other sources, specifically the federal government and the largest national nonprofit developer of affordable rental housing.